-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- If anyone deserved the death penalty , it was Clayton Lockett . He committed a series of vile acts that we as a civilization would condemn under any circumstances .

In August 2000 , a jury in Oklahoma found Lockett guilty of first-degree murder , rape , forcible oral sodomy , kidnapping and a bevy of other charges -- 19 in all . They stemmed from a robbery-gone-wrong in which victims were tied up at gunpoint ; one young woman was raped multiple times , and another , who had just graduated from high school , was shot and buried alive in a ditch .

On Tuesday night , Lockett was scheduled to die by lethal injection -- the preferred means for executing criminals in states that allow for the death penalty .

During lethal injections , subjects are given a chemical cocktail designed to put them to sleep , render paralysis and then stop the heart . One problem for death-penalty states , such as my state of Florida , is the chemicals used for lethal injection are hard to come by , partly because some companies who produce the chemicals refuse to sell them for the purposes of executions .

So in the case of Lockett , the state of Oklahoma tested a new combination of chemicals . Instead of putting Lockett to sleep and stopping his heart , the administration of the lethal injection caused his vein to burst , and about 45 minutes later , he died of a heart attack . It 's been dubbed a `` botched execution , '' and Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin stayed another execution scheduled for Tuesday evening pending an investigation .

This is an absurd problem for states to wrestle with -- this notion of how to kill someone properly . Like I said , if anyone deserved the death penalty , it was Lockett , but the real debate is whether we need to be in the business of trying to find the least cruel and least unusual way to kill anyone voluntarily . It seems clear that the death penalty is a 19th-century relic , and our ridiculous struggle to figure out how to do it properly in the 21st century is a signal that perhaps we should join the rest of the civilized Western world in abolishing executions .

Even Russia has n't had an execution since 1999 , and I would n't exactly call Vladimir Putin soft on crime .

But please understand that I am not some left-wing , dyed-in-the-wool liberal who simply believes all criminal behavior is the fault of a system that fosters deviance . Not at all . I believe that if you take somebody 's life with premeditation , and if a jury , after hearing all of the evidence properly presented by competent counsel , finds you guilty , then you should die -- but in prison , at the end of a life sentence .

My objection to the death penalty is pragmatic . It 's ineffective as a deterrent , and it is an extraordinary burden on our justice system .

For a punishment to offer an effective deterrence , it has to be applied swiftly to maintain the logical cause and effect relationship with the crime , that this is a consequence . But we simply can not , and should not , act quickly . The extended period required to ensure that the death penalty is appropriate -- that all options and appeals have been exhausted before resorting to the ultimate punishment -- is an essential safeguard in a civilized society . In Lockett 's case , this process took nearly 14 years .

Even with this long process of appeals , our system is far from perfect . Innocence projects around the country have saved 144 death-row inmates since 1973 by presenting new evidence that has proven them not guilty . Think of how many innocent people we have executed , when the number should be zero . We should all be shocked and appalled . Since we know innocent people sometimes get convicted based upon bad identification , faulty witnesses , improper police activities and incompetent counsel , ca n't we at least agree to avoid killing somebody when we know we have an imperfect system ?

And the burden of the appeals process on the criminal justice system is huge . A recent report from Amnesty International shows the average cost to carry a death penalty case from prosecution to execution is three to 10 times more than a case with a life sentence . Very often , a life sentence costs the state less than $ 1 million . Some death penalty cases have cost more than $ 10 million . The excruciatingly long , and necessary , appeals process in death penalty cases cost taxpayers millions for each case , and it draws resources away from other important prosecutions . Is it worth the price ?

It would be worth the price , if that was what it took to get justice . But is the death penalty justice ? Or is it retribution ? Often in a death penalty case , members of the victim 's family are the strongest advocates for a death sentence . They say they want justice for their slain loved one , but what they often truly want is retribution . This is both understandable and acceptable . An eye for an eye , a tooth for a tooth . But it 's never that simple .

I 've tried death penalty cases , and I 've been lucky : None of my clients has ever been sent to death row . But I know many good lawyers who have n't been so lucky . You may be surprised to know that in many death penalty cases , which last for years , defense lawyers get to know victims ' families . The families of homicide victims , after an execution , often do n't feel the long sought-after sense of relief they expected . Often , they are left , instead , with unresolved emptiness . Two lives are lost when a murder is committed , and two families are irrevocably altered . We should feel the pain as well , and spend more time , effort and money on those who are affected . We should not spend ever-dwindling resources figuring out ways to kill .

The death penalty is flawed in every conceivable way , and it should be abolished .

@highlight

Mark O'Mara acknowledges if anyone deserved death penalty , Clayton Lockett did

@highlight

O'Mara : But execution is a 19th-century relic , and we still ca n't do it properly

@highlight

He asks how many innocent inmates have been killed ?

@highlight

O'Mara : It does n't deter crime , and victims ' families often left feeling no relief